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When God's Answer Hurts - August 17, 2008

When God's Answer Hurts

Matthew 15:21-28

August 17, 2008

Rev. Dave R. Garwick

There will not be a whole lot of laugh lines or jokes in this morning's sermon. The theme for today is "When God's Answer Hurts". It is all based on the Bible Focus where Jesus answers a mother's pleas with silence and then repeated insult before He consents to heal her daughter. This is one of those passages that we might just as well want to skip over. However, the reason that the story is so important is because this is how our own pleas to Jesus seem to be answered from time to time. The point of this sermon is to help guard your faith "when God's Answer Hurts".

The best way I can understand Jesus' action is by comparing what HE did to what American troops did when they liberated the Dachau concentration camp in World War II. A few weeks ago I shared with you why Dachau is an important part of my life. My dad was among the first American soldiers there to liberate the camp. He made sure that I would never forget what happened there. So Dachau has always had a major impact on my world view, my politics, my theology.

Dad was there on the second day. But a number of things had already happened on the first day. For example, I have a photo of the American general who received the surrender of Dachau. His name was Brig. Gen. Henning Linden who was the Assistant Commander of the 42nd Infantry Division. They nicknamed him "Sunny" when he grew up next door in Mound, and when he was a star hockey player for the U of M.

Something else that I learned about that first day was two things that the American troops did to the starving prisoners who surged up to their trucks. The troops were terrified at what looked like a mass of the living dead, human skeletons clamoring to overcome them. Then the soldiers were overcome with compassion as they tossed overboard all the food they had with them - bread, C-rations, chocolate bars. You can imagine what a feeding frenzy that set off.

The troops did the second thing. When American Army physicians saw all this, they immediately ordered the troops to stop giving out food. The troops were then ordered to dismount and wade into the prisoners and forcibly take back every crumb of food from them. The reason for all this was that the food would actually wind up killing the prisoners. Their bodies were so emaciated that their systems would not be able to handle the food. They would have to be carefully nourished over time before they would be able to eat normal food.

The soldiers themselves were horrified at the cruel thing they were being ordered to do. Imagine how it must have seemed to the prisoners. They panicked, thinking that they were once again being attacked by soldiers. At that moments, there is no way that they could have understood that they were being denied comfort and even food in order to save them.

In the Bible Focus this morning, Jesus himself does what seems like the cruelest thing imaginable, something that seems totally out of character for Him. A desperate mother begs Him to heal her daughter and Jesus seems to simply ignore her. His own "troops", the apostles, intervene and He essentially tells them to back off.

Then the mother begs Him again and then He insults her by calling her a dog. But she persists, "Yes, Lord," she said, "but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." Then Jesus answered, "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted." And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

I have to tell you that I am like those starving people at Dachau, like those confused soldiers: I am horrified that any person, especially Jesus of all people, would treat a grieving victim the way Jesus did. Oh, there are all kinds of guesses and theories as to what Jesus was really up to - that this was 'tough love', or that Jesus did not really mean those hurtful words, or that Jesus was just trying to teach the woman this or that, or that Jesus knew that the woman would not give up, that He was just using this as an example for the rest of us.

None of these theories work for all kinds of reasons, first of which is that the Bible itself does not give these explanations. As with the prisoners as Dachau, at this stage of my frail existence, I am incapable of understanding WHY such a hurtful thing was done by the very one who supposedly came to save us.

How could this mother have persisted? Anybody else in that mother's shoes would have collapsed in grief, or would have walked away, or would have shot back at Jesus, "What kind of a heartless monster ARE you, calling me a dog?!".

How could she have persisted? Was it because she had faith in herself that she could out-logic the one she already acknowledged as the Son of David? That she had faith in herself that she could pester Him into submission?

No, it was because she had faith that however Jesus answered her plea, however He seemed to treat her, He could be trusted. She could tolerate His apparent silence and even His apparent insults because, in the end, she trusted that He could be trusted. And that faith of hers was not disappointed.

When your prayers do not seem to be answered, when your prayers DO seem to be answered by things going from bad to worse, remember the starving prisoners of Dachau and how they were treated by the Americans who came to save them. Remember the grieving mother and how SHE was treated by the Lord who came to save her. Remember how despite all this, she trusted that Jesus could be trusted and how that faith was affirmed. And then may YOU trust that your Savior can be trusted. Amen - may it be so.